If You Left This Party Hungry, I Don't Know What Else I Could Have Done

Ah…my feet are finally up and our last guest left just a few minutes ago. I love our holiday party. It’s so good to catch up with old friends and see co-workers outside our regular work environment.

We had fun with the record player this year too. The iFarmer was even able to fulfill a request for ’80s Pop phenomenon Wham! I won’t out the requester, but by writing this I realize I’m admitting that I actually have Wham! on vinyl.

I also realized a fringe benefit to having a holiday party…the hostess gifts! I have never had so much wine in my house (and possibly the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever eaten). Thanks to the iFarmer, several of our friends walked in with local wines in hand.

I’m so excited to try these. We opened one during the party, a Cherry Pie wine from White Owl Winery in Birds, Ill. [Its claim to fame, other than hundreds of awards, is it’s the only commercial winery in the world that produces Paw Paw wine]. You’d think it’d be super sweet. Not at all. It was a delightful party drink, perfect for sipping while grazing on our treats.

Speaking of treats, I’m pretty pleased with our spread this year. We opted not to focus on local. And we didn’t make everything. But we did have some key homemade dishes.

Our main hot foods were soups and chili. We had a VFG savory original, Espanola Butternut Squash Soup; a sweet Butternut Acorn Squash Soup; and the iFarmer’s White Chicken Chili.

I wasn’t going to do meatballs again, but we got a request for them. Out of 120, we had three left. Am thinking I’ll include those on next year’s menu too.

On the treat side, we made gingerbread muffins and, my favorite, individual pumpkin pies.

Because I still don’t have a pie plate (I’m still banking on getting on from Santa), I used my muffin pan and ramekins to make individual pumpkin pies, some with crusts, others without. I used a mini pumpkin cookie cutter on the extra dough to decorate the tops then served them in my grandmother’s Ruby Red dessert cups. I think I should design a dinner around this depression glasswear. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually used those dessert dishes for dessert.

I was having too much fun with our guests to take pix…so no photos of the food or the rest of the finger foods.

The spiced wine was a nice addition again. But the spiced cider was a dud this year. I think it may have had to do with placement or the fact that it was alcohol free this year. Oh well.

To bed for me…we were up all last night with Future Farmgirl, who came down with a stomach bug, just as her brother’s pink eye was clearing up. We’ve operated this whole day without more than two hours of sleep in a row.